‘I wanted to write a suburban Reacher’: Richard Osman talks to Lee Child about class, success and the secret to great crime writing

The two bestselling authors who both started in TV discuss writing as a second career, natural justice – and what they really think of literary fictionIn the four years since Richard Osman published his first Thursday Murder Club novel he has consistently topped the bestseller lists, and now his quartet of retirement-age detectives will be portrayed on screen by a cast including Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. Having grown up in Sussex, Osman started out in TV, where he created and co-hosted the gameshow Pointless. His forthcoming novel We Solve Murders – the start of a new series – features a writer billed as the world’s bestselling novelist, “if you don’t count Lee Child”. Child, the creator of former military police officer Jack Reacher, has enjoyed phenomenal popularity since he left his career – also in TV, where he worked on shows including Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown and Cracker – and started writing, with his first novel published in 1997. Raised in Birmingham, he moved to the US in 1998 and now lives between Manhattan and rural Wyoming. He wrote 24 Reacher novels before announcing in 2020 that he would be handing the series to his brother Andrew.Lee Child I feel that writing is always a second-phase career, or at least should be. It’s that rare thing that not only can you do it when you’re older, but you should do it when you’re older. Pick your cliche: your gas tank is full, your database is compiled. You are a person. You are ready to write.... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-09-14 09:00:23 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "‘I wanted to write a suburban Reacher’: Richard Osman talks to Lee Child about class, success and the secret to great crime writing"


William Heinemann lands 'masterpiece' from Richard Powers

William Heinemann will publish Bewilderment, Richard Powers' first novel since his Booker-shortlisted and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Overstory (William Heinemann, 2018).  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-24 19:27:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Attention: the principal from Buffy just wrote a novel. It’s called Illyria.

Hello and welcome to the very niche readership who understands what I am talking about and why I am excited and amused by this! The rumors (from this headline) are true: Principal Snyder, also known as Armin Shimerman, has recently published the first novel in a historical fantasy series about... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-17 15:43:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this


In ‘Here Is the Beehive,’ a philandering mother deals with the death of her lover

Sarah Crossan’s first novel for adults is, like some of her celebrated YA novels, written in verse. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-17 13:59:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this


“Hillbilly Elegy” Is the Last Thing America Needs in 2020

My first novel was released within six months of Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s memoir of Appalachian roots and a youth spent in a Rust Belt community with a dearth of jobs and resources. Vance’s book came out just before the 2016 election; mine was released just after. Donald Trump’s victory had... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-17 12:01:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


7 of the Year’s Best Debut Novelists on Their First Literary Loves

Every year, we ask The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalists to reminisce about the first book they fell in love with. This year, we asked Finalists to reflect not just on the first story that stole their heart, but the story that seeded curiosity and empathy for the plight of others... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-17 09:48:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this


New Franzen trilogy announced in US

Jonathan Franzen is set to return in the US next year with Crossroads, the first novel in a new trilogy from the author. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-16 09:26:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this


New novel from Costa-shortlisted Beale to JMP

John Murray is publishing a new novel from Susan Beale, whose debut novel The Good Guy was shortlisted for 2016's Costa First Novel Award. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 19:51:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this


What Do We Owe Our Comunity in a Time of Crisis?

In her first novel published in 14 years, author Julia Alvarez explores grief, isolation, and sisterhood. Afterlife follows Antonia, a writer and retiring English professor, who has just lost her husband Sam. As she reimagines what her life will be without her husband, Antonia also struggles... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-02 12:00:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Exhausting the Vein of Realism: A Conversation with Lynne Sharon Schwartz

I DON’T KNOW when I first became aware of Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s writing, but it was probably sometime between 1980, when Raymond Carver lauded her on the basis of her National Book Award–nominated first novel Rough Strife, and 1989, when Sven Birkerts raved about Schwartz’s PEN/Faulkner... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-29 15:00:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Rituals of Housekeeping, Memories of Home: On Marilynne Robinson’s First Novel

In one of my earliest memories I am standing on a beach with my father and we are sculpting the shape of a woman’s body out of sand. In my mind it is winter—Avalon in the off-season—and I see us huddled in coats, wrapped in wool, bracing ourselves against the salt wind that blows in […] The post... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-29 08:50:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this


“Imagining More Transgender Visibility in Translation”: A Conversation with Ari Larissa Heinrich, by Veronica Esposito

Interviews Ari Larissa Heinrich / Photo by Tara Pixley Ari Larissa Heinrich is the translator of Qiu Miaojin’s Last Words from Montmartre (New York Review Books) and Chi Ta-wei’s The Membranes (forthcoming from Columbia University Press). They... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-10-27 22:09:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Wole Soyinka is publishing his first novel in five decades.

This one goes out to all the writers in the Year of our Lord 2020, as we all worry that our total inability to put a sentence together could turn into a lifetime of non-production: It’s never too late. Wole Soyinka, who in 1986 became the first person from sub-Saharan Africa to win a Nobel... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-27 19:39:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Unsafe Harbors: A Conversation with Nadia Terranova

ON JULY 2 of this year, I interviewed the author Nadia Terranova at her mother’s house in Santa Marinella, Italy, on a Zoom call from my apartment in Santa Monica, California. Back in 2015, I’d written a review of her first novel ​Gli anni al contrario (​The Years in Reverse​) and we’d met for... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-27 17:00:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Abigail Dean | 'It is meant to be a novel about humanity and hope'

Girl A, the novel that was the centre of a bidding frenzy on both sides of the Atlantic, looks set to catapult Abigail Dean into the bestseller lists Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-26 05:10:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Margaret Busby: how Britain's first black female publisher revolutionised literature – and never gave up

In her 20s, she set up her own company, publishing everyone from James Ellroy to the Worst Witch series, and changing Britain for the better, book by book There is a revealing story Margaret Busby tells, about the first novel she published. A family friend had bumped into a former US serviceman... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-10-22 05:00:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Banks' first novel in a decade to No Exit Press

No Exit Press will publish Russell Banks’ new novel Foregone as a lead fiction title in June 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-13 01:47:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Ethan Hawke's new novel on art, love and fame to William Heinemann

William Heinemann is publishing the first novel in almost 20 years from actor, writer and director Ethan Hawke: A Bright Ray of Darkness. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-05 04:15:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Here’s the shortlist for the Center for Fiction’s 2020 First Novel Prize.

Today the Center for Fiction announced the shortlist for its 2020 First Novel Prize. The prize, first awarded in 2006, recognizes the best debut fiction of the year, and it comes with $15,000; each finalist receives $1,000. Previous winners include De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Tommy Orange, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-01 15:05:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Sigrid Nunez’s ‘What Are You Going Through’ is an ambitious novel about the meaning of life and death

Nunez’s first novel since winning the National Book Award follows a woman and her terminally ill friend. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-16 16:32:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Bloomsbury wins auction for Lockwood's 'miraculous' debut novel

Bloomsbury is to publish Patricia Lockwood's first novel No One Is Talking About This, after winning a 10-way auction.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 02:57:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this